But in a note to staff on Friday seen by The Channel, Jens Montanana, CEO at Logicalis parent Datatec, confirmed that Bullard will not be staying on.

"Gary Bullard who was appointed CEO designate in December will not be taking up the role of CEO on March 1st.

"As previously communicated, Ian was to become Chairman on the 1st March but will now step up to Executive Chairman for next year. Mark Rogers, COO, will expand his operational duties to include Ian's regional executive direct reports and assume responsibility for all P&L going forward," he stated.

Talking to The Channel, Ian Cook, exec chairman at Logicalis and the man who Bullard replaced, said "It's just one of those things".

"There was no one reason that I could put my finger on, it didn't work out," he added.

He said Logicalis top brass are currently re-evaluating plans: "I will stay on as exec chairman, whereas I was going to stay on non-exec chairman.

"We will look at it going forward but we are not going outside [to recruit] at this stage, we will re-assess the group structure," he told us.

The news was leaked to vendors late on Friday, and a source voiced surprise that Bullard should leave so quickly after sitting in on the budgetary planning sessions when he landed last month.

Part of the South Africa-listed Datatec Group, Logicalis has been on the up in recent times, reporting bumper numbers for fiscal '13 ended 28 February with operating profit rebounding 28 per cent to $54.7m and sales up nine per cent to $1.35bn.

Neither was there any indication of financial bumps - quite the opposite - at the half-way stage of fiscal '14 or in the more recent fiscal '14 interim statement. One source branded the split as a clash of personalities on both sides of the fence, adding "it is odd that it came down to personalities". ®